10 university flashpoints over free speech

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Do students want to have debates? Or stop other people from speaking?

Free speech – too much of it or too little of it – has become one of the thorniest and most emotive subjects for universities.

At what point do strongly held views become extremism or hate speech?

There have been violent flashpoints, particularly in US universities, about what can be said about race, gender and sexuality.

And when does the ultra-liberal assertion of “safe spaces” and limits on language become intolerant and controlling?

Or are these just first-world problems, missing the point about what freedom is really about?

So as new academic terms begin, where are the significant battlegrounds?

1) In Hong Kong, students are under pressure to stop putting up posters and flying banners promoting independence from China.

University campuses are being told that this is not an issue of freedom of speech, but an attack on the principle of Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” relationship with China.

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Security for a campus speech at Berkeley cost the university $600,000

The posters are put up by students on “democracy walls”, but authorities say this is an “abuse” of freedom.

2) The dollar price of free speech: The University of California, Berkeley, was a cradle of the “free speech movement” in the United States in the 1960s, when students were protesting against the Vietnam war.

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Torches have been banned at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville

The university authorities said the security operation around the event cost them $600,000 (£440,000).

Another right-wing free speech event, also likely to provoke another protest, is planned for the autumn.

3) Looking west or east?: The Central European University in Budapest in Hungary has been at the centre of an international struggle, which the university says could see it being shut down.

The university, originally funded by the liberal philanthropist George Soros, says it is being targeted by an unsympathetic, nationalist government.

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Protesters in Budapest want to protect the threatened Central European University

Hungary’s government says the university needs to comply with new higher education regulations – and negotiations in the United States have been trying to break the deadlock.

4) Illiberal liberals?: Republican lawmakers in the US state of Ohio are trying to put campus free speech into legislation – challenging what they see as excessive political correctness.

They warn that a “mentality is creeping into our culture that views disagreeable speech as inherently hateful, or even violent”.

They want to stop universities setting up designated “free speech zones” on campus, where controversial opinions can be aired, arguing that the whole university should be open to free speech.

5) Torch ban: After the confrontations between torch-carrying white supremacists and protesters at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, the universities have clarified that carrying such “open flames” will not be permitted by the campus police.

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US campuses have seen conflicts over what views should be allowed to be expressed

It shows the power of the symbol in arguments over free speech, with the burning torches evoking images of the Ku Klux Klan and far-right rallies.

There are other measures toughening up security, but university authorities say that carrying “open flame devices” will be prohibited.

6) Turkey trial: The trial of a university lecturer accused of terror-related charges began last week in Turkey.

But she then became embroiled in a row over whether the example she used showed a lack of opposition to homophobia, with calls for an apology and clarifications that she had been “completely misconstrued“.

10) North Korea: What are their worries about free movement? A private, English-language university in the country, the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, has been struggling with getting overseas staff through the US travel ban, but opened as planned this term.

Meanwhile Kim Il-sung University, working on a technology project forecasting exchange rates, has only “success” to report.